Jewish Care Launches Holocaust Documentary Series .

Jewish Care Victoria is proud to launch its first video, ‘The Greatest Loss’ in its Holocaust documentary series titled ‘Rising From the Ashes’, in commemoration of Yom Hashoah – Holocaust Memorial Day (5 May 2016).

As Melbourne is home to the largest number of Holocaust survivors per capita outside of Israel, Jewish Care believed it was crucial to create this short film, in order to share the survivors’ stories to ensure that we will never forget.

This gripping 15-minute short film features interviews with 12 Holocaust survivors who have a relationship with Jewish Care as clients, aged care residents, volunteers and donors. They emotionally recount their loss of childhood, family, identity and freedom at the hands of Nazi Germany and its collaborators.

Each person tells their own heartbreaking story of how they managed to
survive the atrocities they witnessed and experienced.

Marianna Shwarz, one of the survivors interviewed said,

“I participated in this project because I don’t want the Holocaust to be forgotten. Our stories need to be passed on to future generations so they know what happened to us, to avoid it happening to them.”

Numerous videos, on a range of topics, will be launched during the year as part of the Rising From the Ashes series. The series aims to highlight how the trauma experienced by Holocaust survivors transcends generations and impacts their children and grandchildren.

Jewish Care connects with thousands of survivors living in Victoria through the Holocaust Survivor Support Programme and other community services which addresses their needs in areas such as home and personal care, socialisation, counselling, housing support and assistance to receive restitution pensions and payments. The Programme receives funding from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (‘Claims Conference’).